Llallawavis
Name:
Llallawavis
(Magnificent bird).
Phonetic: L-lal-law-a-vis.
Named By: Federico J. Degrange, Claudia
P.Tambussi, Mat�as L.Taglioretti, Alejandro Dondas &
Fernando Scaglia - 2015.
Classification: Chordata, Aves, Cariamiformes,
Phorusrhacidae, Mesembriornithinae.
Species: L. scagliai (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Roughly estimated to have been about 1.2
meters tall.
Known locations: Argentina.
Time period: Piacenzian of the Pliocene.
Fossil representation: Almost complete skull and
skeleton, including soft tissue remains.
While
Llallawavis was not the largest phorusrhacid
(a.k.a. terror bird)
ever to live, it was at the time of the genus description the most
completely preserved example of one. So complete was the holotype
individual of Llallawavis, that even preserved
parts of the trachea,
and voice box were recovered, soft tissue areas that are usually not
preserved at
all.
The
skull of Llallawavis also shows us two distinct
evolutionary
adaptations. One is that the skull bones of Llallawavis
were fused
together (in most birds they are not), and it is thought that
this was to withstand the forces impacted against the head when a
hunting Llallawavis bashed prey animals with its
head. The second
feature is the structure of the inner ear, detailed studies of which
have shown that it could only pick up sounds that operated within
380 and 4,230 hertz range. By comparison most people can
hear an average range of about 20 and 20,000 hertz (though
people are born with different abilities and hearing ability will
deteriorate with both age and exposure to excessive noise levels).
What this means is that Llallawavis could only
hear what would sound
like very low bass-like sounds, and may well have had a similar low
frequency call when communicating with members of the same species
(e.g. during courtship).
Further reading
- A new Mesembriornithinae (Aves, Phorusrhacidae) provides new
insights into the phylogeny and sensory capabilities of terror birds.
- Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 35 (2). - Federico
J. Degrange, Claudia P.Tambussi, Mat�as L.Taglioretti,
Alejandro Dondas & Fernando Scaglia - 2015.
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